Digital Commons Network^™

Natural Fiber Derived Activated Carbons For Industrial Emission Minimization And Capture, Melike Dizbay Onat

All ETDs from UAB

Natural fibers including hemp, sisal, flax and industrial natural fiber waste that are con-sidered as "green" alternative sources to prepare low cost, high quality activated carbon comprise this study. Natural fibers were carbonized and subjected to chemical activation to convert them to activated carbon materials. Adsorption isotherm plots, pore size char-acteristics and the Brunauer, Emmet and Teller (BET) surface areas of natural fiber de-rived activated carbons were determined to understand the physical adsorption proper-ties. Chemical structures were determined by ultimate and proximate analyses. Porosity was visualized through SEM images. FTIR analysis was used to indicate the main func-tional groups of …

From Total War To Total Annihilation, Katherine Dover

Vulcan Historical Review

pp. 63-77

"Scientists Are Wrong Most Of The Time": An Interview With Dr. Steven Austad, Susmita Murthy

Inquiro (undergraduate research journal)

p. 5

https://www.uab.edu/inquiro/issues/past-issues/volume-9/scientists-are-wrong-most-of-the-time-an-interview-with-dr-steven-austad

Eye Lens Protein Composition In Aging Cataractous Icr/F Rats, Supraja Sridhar

Inquiro (undergraduate research journal)

pp. 38-47

https://www.uab.edu/inquiro/issues/past-issues/volume-9/eye-lens-protein-composition-in-aging-cataractous-icrf-rats

Section 1: Bio-Medical/Bioengineering, Ectc Coordinating Committee

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Proceedings of the 15th Annual Early Career Technical Conference, November 7, 2015. School of Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; pp. 1-36

Proceedings Of The 15th Annual Early Career Technical Conference (Complete Issue), Ectc Coordinating Committee

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Proceedings of the 15th Annual Early Career Technical Conference, November 7, 2015. School of Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama

Feasibility Study Of Substituting The Ffr Invasive Procedure With Cfd Analysis For Assessment Of Human Coronary Artery Stenosis, Mohamed M. Selim, Ankur Gupta

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Section 1: Bio-Medical/Bioengineering; pp. 10-16

Investigating The Engineering, Scientific, And Medical Basis For Ventilation In Health Care Facilities: Preliminary Literature Review And Special Attention To One Prototypical Application, Lu Shen, Sheldon M. Jeter

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Section 1: Bio-Medical/Bioengineering; pp. 28-36

Stat4 Regulates Multiple Pathogenic Mechanisms Of Cd4 T Cells In Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis, A Model Of Multiple Sclerosis, Ian Lee Mcwilliams

All ETDs from UAB

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease whereby the host immune system fails to recognize self vs non-self and targets myelin of the central nervous system. Currently there is no permanent cure for MS and the efficacy of immune modulatory treatments often wane over time, therefore we seek to determine novel pathogenic mechanisms to target therapeutically. CD4 T cells have been found within inflammatory CNS lesions of MS patients and are believed to be important mediators of MS pathology. To study CD4 T cells in the context of MS, we use the well-defined MS mouse model experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). …

The Interrelationships Among Obesity, Insulin Sensitivity, And Bone Phenotype In Pre-Pubertal Girls, Anna L. Newton

All ETDs from UAB

Impaired insulin sensitivity as a consequence of childhood obesity has been implicated as a contributor to skeletal fragility. There is a need to understand the interrelationships among insulin sensitivity and skeletal parameters (i.e. cortical, trabecular, marrow) in obesity during the pubertal transition. Further, calorie restricted weight loss to stabilize these relationships warrants investigation as well. The goal of this project was to examine the relationships among body composition, skeletal parameters, and insulin sensitivity. The first aim was to evaluate the relationships among total body fat, bone mineral content (BMC) and femoral bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) during childhood and underlying …

Protumorigenic Role Of Cathelicidin-Related Antimicrobial Peptide In Chemotaxis And Differentiation Of Myeloid Lineage During Prostate Cancer Progression, Ha-Ram Cha

All ETDs from UAB

A growing body of evidence indicates a positive correlation between the expression of human antimicrobial peptide leucine leucine 37 (LL-37) and the progression of epithelial cancers, including carcinomas of the breast, lung, ovary, and prostate. Although the molecular mechanisms for this correlation have not yet been clearly elucidated, the primary function of LL-37 as a chemotactic molecule for innate immune effector cells suggests its possible association in coordinating protumorigenic mechanisms mediated by tumor-infiltrating immune cells. Using a mouse model of epithelial prostate cancer (PCa), the present study identified a unique role for cathelicidin-related antimicrobial peptide (CRAMP), a murine orthologue of …

Tau-Sh3 Interactions: Implications For Alzheimer's Disease, Jesse Nicholas Cochran

All ETDs from UAB

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease and with Americans’ increasing longevity it is becoming an epidemic. There are currently no effective treatments for this disorder. Abnormalities of tau track more closely with cognitive decline than the most studied therapeutic target in AD, amyloid-beta, but the optimal strategy for targeting tau has not yet been identified. Based on considerable preclinical data from AD models, we hypothesize that interactions between tau and SH3 domain–containing proteins are pathogenic in AD. Genetically reducing either tau or tau interactants has beneficial effects relevant to AD. Here, we describe a drug screen for …

Behavioral And Developmental Abnormalities In Sult4a1 Deficient Zebrafish, Francis Crittenden

All ETDs from UAB

Since its identification in 2000, sulfotransferase (SULT) 4A1 has presented an enigma to the field of cytosolic SULT biology. SULT4A1 is exclusively expressed in neural tissue, is highly conserved, and has been identified in every vertebrate studied to date. Despite this singular level of conservation, no substrate or function for SULT4A1 has been identified. Previous studies demonstrated that SULT4A1 does not bind the obligate sulfate donor, 3’-phosphoadenosine-5’-phosphosulfate (PAPS), yet SULT4A1 is classified as a SULT superfamily member based on sequence and structural similarities to the other SULTs. In this study, RNA-seq was used to search for alterations in gene ex-pression …

Hepatocyte Clock And Alcohol-Dependent Disruption In Glycogen Metabolism, Uduak Sunday Udoh

All ETDs from UAB

Chronic alcohol consumption has been shown to significantly decrease hepatic glycogen, an important storage form of energy for the body and liver. Emerging studies indicate a link between metabolism and the molecular circadian clock. Previously, we have shown that chronic alcohol consumption disrupts the liver molecular clock mechanism. However, it is not known how this alteration impacts hepatic energy (e.g., glycogen) metabolism and contributes to alcohol hepatotoxicity. This dissertation investigates the impact chronic alcohol consumption has on time-of-day-dependent oscillations of various aspects of liver glycogen metabolism, and the importance of the liver circadian clock in these metabolic alterations. Chapter 1: …

Individual, Family, And Social Factors Associated With Adolescent Obesity: A Policy Relevant Focus, Janice Marguerite Utley

All ETDs from UAB

INDIVIDUAL, FAMILY, AND SOCIAL FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH ADOLESCENT OBESITY: A POLICY RELEVANT FOCUS JANICE M. UTLEY PUBLIC HEALTH ABSTRACT This dissertation is comprised of three papers that examined individual, family, and social factors associated with adolescent overweight and obesity with the aim of generating data that could inform the design of policy interventions to prevent or reverse rising prevalence. The first investigation was a type of literature review called a scoping study that examined the extent, range, and type of research activity on adolescent obesity that used a multilevel or hierarchical design to look at two or more contextual areas …

The Effects Of The Initially Transcribed Sequence On Reiterative Transcription In Escherichia Coli, Jeffery Michael Vahrenkamp

All ETDs from UAB

Transcription, the synthesis of a ribonucleic acid transcript using a nucleic acid template, is the first step in gene expression for all life. In most organisms, high fidelity transcription is achieved through the formation of an RNA:DNA hybrid which allows the RNA polymerase to maintain the correct register. Slippage, which would lead to improper base pairing, is prevented by the heterogeneous sequence of the DNA template. However, when homogenous tracts of bases are present in the template, slippage can occur, allowing a single base in the template to encode multiple bases in the transcript in a process called reiterative transcription. …

A Grounded Theory Model For Faculty Evaluation Of Nursing Student Performance During A Simulation, Penni Isla Watts

All ETDs from UAB

This qualitative grounded theory study explored the process of faculty evaluation of student performance during simulation in the southern United States. In the last decade, simulation experiences have been found to be useful in nursing education as a teaching methodology and as a potential method for evaluation of student performance. While clinical experiences are limited, unpredictable, and difficult to truly evaluate, simulation experiences provide an opportunity for students to manage care through pre-planned patient scenarios without potential harm to real patients. This allows faculty to observe students making decisions and caring for simulated patients in a context designed to elicit …

Characterizing The Nuclear Import And Functions Of Cystin, The Ciliary Protein Disrupted In The Cpk Mouse Model Of Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease, Jacob Asher Watts

All ETDs from UAB

Autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD; MIM 263200) is a ma-jor cause of pediatric morbidity and mortality. Typically, orthologous animal models are the mainstay for pathogenic studies of human diseases. However, gene-targeting of Pkhd1, the mouse ortholog of the ARPKD gene, results in mutants with little or no kidney disease. In contrast, disruption of the non-orthologous gene, Cys1, in the cpk mouse model closely phenocopies human ARPKD. We speculate that this phenotypic similarity suggests that the Pkhd1 and Cys1 genes encode proteins (FPC and cystin, respectively) that share, at least in part, common molecular pathways. Our laboratory, as well as …

Effectiveness Of Functional Electrical Stimulation Assisted Rowing To Improve Shoulder Pain And Aerobic Fitness In Manual Wheelchair Users With Spinal Cord Injury, Susan Wilbanks

All ETDs from UAB

Exercise is beneficial to adults with spinal cord injury (SCI) because of its ability to improve function and increase life expectancy. The goal of this dissertation was to determine an effective intervention for increasing aerobic fitness and decreasing shoulder pain in manual wheelchair users with SCI by identifying underlying mechanisms for shoulder pain, optimizing training and utilizing appropriate outcome measures. Three studies were conducted. The first study indicated that exercise interventions for adults with SCI are of low to moderate methodological quality, frequently using outcome measures associated with changes in body structures and functions, and not frequently examining effects on …

Web Computing For Bioinformatics Applications, Sean Wilkinson

All ETDs from UAB

This work explores web computing as a solution to current problems in informatics, including algorithm delivery, distributed computation, and data visualization. A novel computing platform called QMachine has been developed for use in clinical research environments for computationally intensive applications like medical image processing and genomics sequence processing. In such applications, the emergence of Big Data as the inevitable reference for the analysis of local (“small”) data from individual experiments or patients has presented numerous challenges. In particular, computational workflows that handle Big Data need significantly greater processing and memory resources. Advances in virtualization – especially in cloud computing – …

Examining The Relationship Between Driving Styles Of Teen Drivers And Their Parents, Shannon Michelle Oram Wittig

All ETDs from UAB

Teenage drivers, ages 16 to 19, account for about 16.8% of motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) in the United States, even though teenagers only represent about 4.4% of the United States population. Several factors increase teenagers’ risk for MVCs including: lack of driving experience, poor ability to identify and anticipate hazards, lack of sensitivity to road complexity and conditions, and increased willingness to take risks. Research has also suggested the importance of parental influences on risky teenage driving. This study examined the effects of parental driving styles, behaviors, and history on teenagers’ driving style using self-reported measures. Overall, it was hypothesized …

Bioavailability Of Dietary Oxalate, Mary Catherine Robertson

All ETDs from UAB

Urolithiasis, or kidney stone disease, is a costly and painful health problem affecting about 8.8% of Americans with prevalence on the rise. Calcium oxalate stones account for about 80% of all stones. Increased urinary excretion of calcium and oxalate is a risk factor and central feature of such stones; dietary oxalate contributes up to 50% of urinary oxalate. The purpose of our research is to determine if physical manipulation such as chewing or blending prior to ingestion may render some oxalate more accessible for absorption in spinach, a high-oxalate food. In this crossover, controlled trial we enrolled six healthy, non-stone …

The Sialyltransferase St6gal-I Promotes A Cancer Stem Cell Phenotype, Matthew Jonathan Schultz

All ETDs from UAB

Alterations in tumor cell glycosylation have been observed for decades, but the functional consequences of specific glycosyltransferase activity are not well understood. This dissertation focuses on the role of the sialyltransferase ST6Gal-I in driving ovarian and pancreatic cancer development. ST6Gal-I adds a negatively-charged sialic acid sugar in an alpha 2-6 linkage to select receptors, which can alter their function. We show that ST6Gal-I protein is upregulated in ovarian and pancreatic cancers but not expressed in normal epithelial tissue from these organs. ST6Gal-I expression in ovarian cancer correlates with decreased progression-free and overall survival, and we present evidence that ST6Gal-I expression …

Mpa Graduates: The Role Of Public And Nonprofit Managers In Public Service, Jasmine Traneil Shaw

All ETDs from UAB

Public sector employment has been the saving grace for American households throughout the tests of time. Exploration into the stability of the workforce and its resulting impact on the economy is essential to determining whether the benefits of working in the public sector outweigh the costs. A sample of 435 MPA alumni were asked to complete a survey designed to evaluate their career as it relates to variables such as job securement, salary, family life, and career advancement. Survey results provided evidence that MPA graduates find jobs in a reasonable amount of time and their salary allows their lifestyle to …

A Study Of The Relationship Between Nasion Perpendicular And The True Vertical Line, Jeffrey Shelley

All ETDs from UAB

A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NASION PERPENDICULAR AND THE TRUE VERTICAL LINE JEFFREY ALBERT SHELLEY JR. DEPARTMENT OF ORTHODONTICS ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between Nasion perpendicular and the true vertical line between patient groups using cephalometric analysis. Materials and Methods: Ninety-six adolescent patients comprised the sample for this study. Subjects were between 10 and 18 years old, with no major craniofacial deformity. Three groups of patients were divided in to three groups (Class I, Class II and Class III) based on their skeletal antero-posterior relationship. Pre-treatment lateral cephalometric radiographs were taken with …

The Unfolded Protein Response And Calcium Dysregulation In Autosomal Dominant Retinitis Pigmentosa Animal Models., Vishal Madhukar Shinde

All ETDs from UAB

The photoreceptor cell death in autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (ADRP) is associated with molecular changes that occur due to mutations in a specific gene. S334ter RHO and P23H RHO are two ADRP rat models expressing mutant rhodopsin. The unfolded protein response (UPR) is a cellular stress response involved in the pathophysiology of several retinal disorders including P23H RHO rats. Considering our previous findings, we started our investigation by examining the status of UPR in S334ter RHO rats. As UPR tightly regulates several signaling pathways, we further studied whether UPR activation in S334ter and P23H RHO retina is accompanied by the …

The Multifactorial Roles Of The Cytokines Il-21 And Il-22 In Mediating Host Defense Against Enteropathogenic Infection, Daniel James Silberger

All ETDs from UAB

Enteropathogenic strains of Escherichia coli are a major public health concern, causing diarrhea and mortality particularly among infants and children in developing countries. Citrobacter rodentium is a murine intestinal pathogen that models pathogenic E. coli infection. Both innate and adaptive immune cells contribute to the clearance of C. rodentium. In particular, B cells and CD4+ T cells but not CD8+ T cells are required for protection during a primary infection with C. rodentium. In addition, T cell-dependent antibody responses are required for clearance. Th17 cells are a major CD4+ T cell population that accumulates in the large intestine during C. …

Computational Modelling And Surface Charachterization Of Interface In Polymer Composites By Atomic Force Microscopy, Daljeet Kumar Singh

All ETDs from UAB

Polymer composites are used in numerous industries due to their high specific strength and high specific stiffness. Such composites have markedly different properties than both the reinforcement and the matrix. Of the several factors which govern the final property of the composite, the interface is the single most factor that influences the stress transfer mechanism from the fiber to the matrix. The interface bond strength is also influenced by the surface treatments applied to the fiber during spinning and weaving. The present study is an effort to characterize and model the fiber-matrix interface in polymer matrix composites. Finite element models …

Comparison Of Gut Microbiomes In Laboratory Cultured Sea Urchins Revealing Selective Attributes Of Microbial Composition Based Upon Their Feed And Surroundings, Joseph Antoine Hakim

All ETDs from UAB

Bacteria residing in the gastrointestinal tract play important roles in digestive physiology and host health. The advent of NextGen sequencing and bioinformatics has made it possible to establish taxonomic profiles with highest coverage, and map these microbes in the gut ecosystem. Although extensively studied in the context of human health, understanding the microbial profiles associated with other organisms will elucidate the roles of the microbial inhabitants to their respective hosts and environment. The microbes of the sea urchin gut have been linked to digestion, processing, and extraction of nutrients from ingesta while within the gut, and have also been implicated …

Obesity Weighs Down Memory: Emerging Insights Into The Epigentic Basis Of Obesity-Induced Memory Impairment In Adult Mice, Frankie Darryn Heyward

All ETDs from UAB

A preponderance of evidence has established that obesity contributes to memory impairments in mid-age adults. Empirical evidence has revealed that diet-induced obesity contributes to memory impairments in adult rodents. Precisely how obesity disrupts memory remains an open question. Bourgeoning data indicate that molecular epigenetic mechanisms mediate the changes in gene transcription that are necessary for hippocampus-dependent memory consolidation. Epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, stably regulate gene expression without affecting the DNA sequence. Moreover, DNA methylation of memory-related genes with in the hippocampus is indispensible for memory formation. There is recent evidence of obesity-induced aberrantions in DNA methylation both peripherally …